A woman who suffered an extreme eczema flare up thanks to sipping a beer on holiday was left with skin so hot and itchy she had to shave her head as a result of the steroid cream she was prescribed.

Maria Marzaioli was in agony with skin so hot she could've "fried an egg" on her neck after using the topical steroid cream.

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As a kid, Maria from East Sussex, suffered with occasional and very manageable dry patches around her mouth and elbow creases, giving her no cause for concern.

But then during a trip to Tuscany, Italy, in 2015, she woke one morning with her eyes and face swollen and horrendously itchy - which she believes was a reaction to a wheat beer she had drunk the night before.

Credit: PA Real Life

Once home, her symptoms worsened, prompting doctors to prescribe a series of topical steroid creams - which her skin became 'addicted' to, causing such intense irritation she could no longer stand her long, luscious locks and shaved her head.

Eventually ditching the creams after reading hundreds of online stories just like her own, Maria, who works as a quality officer, still faced an ongoing battle with her skin, saying: "At my worst, I would regularly wake with my eyes swollen shut, and blood all over my sheets from scratching during the night.

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"Red patches spread everywhere, and I was incredibly hot and itchy. You could have fried an egg on my neck.

"But in a way, it has also helped me to accept my body. I've realised how much of our self-worth is wrapped up in looks, but I have now made peace with myself and understand what I have to offer the world outside of my appearance."

Diagnosed with eczema as a little girl - like one in five UK children, according to the British Skin Foundation - it was never much of a problem.

"At around 14, things got more noticeable, but I was also much more sensitive about my face and how I looked at that age," she said.

From about the age of 21, Maria started to use hydrocortisone, a type of steroid cream, every few years when her skin became very sore.

But everything changed during her fateful 2015 trip to Italy.

The 43-year-old recalled: "I'd drank a wheat beer the night before and woke in the morning with my face and eyes swollen.

"There was no question in my mind that the beer was the cause. It was the only thing I'd had that was significantly different to what I normally ate and drank. I also remember having similar reactions a couple of times to wheat beers when I was younger."

Initially, Maria tried to treat her symptoms with antihistamines and moisturising creams - but they made little difference.

Eventually, after five days, she visited a local chemist and asked, in fluent Italian, for hydrocortisone cream.

From there, her symptoms briefly cleared - before returning with a vengeance once she got back to the UK.

Credit: PA Real Life

She continued: "I went to the doctor and that triggered a cycle of being prescribed steroid creams, them eventually stopping working, then going back to get higher dosage ones.

"I slept with cotton gloves on and wore compression bandages to try and stop me from itching. I couldn't even be cuddled because my skin was so sore.

"Before this, I had been giggling regularly and playing the violin in a few different bands, but once it started I found I'd get so hot and sweaty on stage that it prompted uncontrollable itching attacks.

"I'd often have to go straight home and dunk myself into a cold bath, and even had to quit one of the bands, which was devastating."

After around six months of misery, Maria, who eventually shaved her hair after finding it irritated the skin on her neck too much, desperate for help, took to the internet for advice.

There, she came across The International Topical Steroid Addiction Network (ITSAN), and was shocked to see several stories of people from all over the world who, just like her, had suffered adverse reactions to steroid creams.

"I mentioned topical steroid addiction to doctors, but they didn't think it was likely, even though my experience was mirroring hundreds of other peoples'," said Maria. "It is not widely accepted in the medical community, so the difficulty is that you have to self-diagnose.

"Incidentally, I also found out around the same time that the cream I'd been given in Italy was not hydrocortisone as I thought, but rather Diprosone, a much higher potency steroid cream.

"So, I had been unknowingly using a large dosage of steroid cream for months."

Emma Rosemurgey

Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Junior Journalist at PRETTY52. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining the team in 2017. Contact her on emma.rosemurgey@pretty52.com